Montreal: The crtc has licensed four new French-language specialty channels, in history, science and technology, travel, and drama. The new channels were given seven-year licence terms and will be distributed as part of a second discretionary tier, effective Jan. 10, 2000.

The crtc’s decision increases to 15 the number of specialty channels in French. There are currently 29 English-language specialty services in Canada and five in other languages.

The highly anticipated decision was handed down Friday, May 21 by crtc chairperson Francoise Bertrand at a luncheon address to the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television in Montreal. In the current round, the crtc considered 17 French-language applications.

The day’s big winners were Les Reseaux Premier Choix, an Astral Communications subsidiary, Alliance Atlantis Communications and Radiomutuel.

With the exception of Canal Evasion, which will use Groupe tva’s broadcast and production infrastructure, conventional networks Reseau tva and Radio-Canada and with their partners – in src’s case La Sept-arte (Reseau des Arts) and the National Film Board (Reseau de l’histoire) – were denied any new licences.

Bertrand said the primary considerations in choosing four new specialty channels included the consumers’ ability to pay (the new tier is projected to cost a maximum of $6 per subscriber) and the limited capacity of current analog distribution networks. The selection was also based on the potential for broad or ‘family’ appeal and minimum impact on existing services.

Echoing recent broadcast decisions concerning the role of cable operators, Bertrand said ‘vertical integration and undue preference’ (a reference to Videotron which serves 75% of all cable subscribers in Quebec) was another important consideration.

In a brief commentary on some of the applications denied by the commission, Bertrand said Reseau des Arts was a high-quality proposal, but dissuading factors included a smaller potential audience, a likely impact on existing cultural programming (including programming from Tele-Quebec), and a relatively high subscriber fee ($0.90).

On tva’s Tele Ha! Ha! Comedy proposal, she reiterated ‘the undue preference’ concern, adding tva already has an audience share of 40% and the comedy channel would likely have an impact on the current comedy-heavy slates of src and Television Quatre Saisons.

Wholesale subscriber rates will be tied to penetration levels – projected to be in the 60% range within 12 to 18 months – with each of the new discretionary services picking up from $0.45 to $0.85.

The winners are. . .

The four new French-language specialty licencees are:

* Canal z, a science, technology and science-fiction service 100% owned by Radiomutuel:

The decision gives Radiomutuel five specialty licences with a term commitment to invest $23 million in new independent Canadian production for Canal z. Spending on dubbing is pegged at $11 million. The licensee is required to spend 48% of the previous year’s revenues on Canadian programming and more than $23 million on independent production over the seven-year term.

* Canal Histoire, a doc factual and entertainment history channel owned equally by rpc and aac:

Cancon is pegged at no less than 35% during the day and 35% in the evening in the first two years. The new licensee is obliged to spend no less than 35% of the previous year’s revenues on Canadian programs, not less than $4.5 million in the second year, 75% of which must go to first-run, original programs. 25% of all foreign shows must be non-American.

The service is committed to spend $32 million on independently produced programs over the term, with affiliate or shareholder-originated programs limited to 5% of annual program spending.

* Canal Evasion, a travel and adventure tourism channel owned by bce (50.1%), Groupe tva (10%), Serdy Direct (19.9%), Media Overseas (10%) and Pathe/Canal Voyage France:

Cancon is fixed at 60% – daypart and prime – with Canadian program expenditures set at 50% of gross revenues. The licensee will invest close to $18 million in independent programs over the term (affiliates are limited to 25%) as well as $826,000 on dubbing for acquired Canadian programs.

* Canal Fiction, an alternative tv drama, feature film and tv movie channel owned equally aac and rpc:

Programming on Canal Histoire will be predominantly Canadian (no less than 25%) and foreign (drama series not previously broadcast on French-track tv in Canada), with American program content not to exceed 20%.

The licensee is obliged to spend no less than 22% of revenues on Canadian programming and at least $900,000 is to be used to finance up to a dozen new original French-track tv movies annually.

The service will also provide an annual grant of $125,000 to the Institut National de l’Image et du Son advanced film school in Montreal and a second annual grant of $100,000 to Cinematheque Quebecoise.

All four new services are licensed to carry a maximum of 12 minutes of paid national advertising per hour.

Pierre Roy, president and ceo of Reseaux Premier Choix, says it is still to be determined where the two new services will be housed as there is little available space at Maison Astral. Roy says programming vps will be immediately hired for both Canal Histoire and Canal Fiction. About five or six people will be hired in each service’s programming department, for a total of 15 new jobs for each service. He expects both services to have annual revenues in the $12 million range.

With the two new rpc/aac licences, Canal d may be repositioned to look more like an a&e-style service in the future, says Roy.

Andre Bureau, chairman of Astral Communications, says the commission has created a specialty package which can be readily marketed to consumers. As for Canal Fiction, he says, ‘It’s kind of a replication of the Montreal World Film Festival. It will be the best of television from around the world.’

Paul-Emile Beaulne, executive vp at Radiomutuel, says Canal z’s focus will be on convergence programming – new media, technology and computers.

Radiomutuel now has five specialty licences including MusiquePlus, MusiMax, lifestyle channel Canal Vie and Tele-Announce. Beaulne says about 15 new jobs will be created at Canal z, with another 50 created indirectly.

Beaulne says the pre-crtc decision research indicated Canal z was either first or second in terms of public preference, and says the new channel ‘will be a little bit like The Learning Channel.’

Pierre Marchand, program director at MusiquePlus and MusiMax, says the crtc’s May 21 licensing decisions reflect commercial patterns already established in the u.s. and English-Canadian tv markets.

‘I get the feeling that the crtc is moving away from [licensing] traditional tv operators [src and tva] as the operators of specialty channels, which is a good sign,’ says Marchand. ‘At the same time, you don’t want to create a monopoly [rpc] and so in the future [the question is] where are the new people going to come from? Will there be a place for new people?’

Says Phyllis Yaffe, president of Alliance Atlantis Broadcasting: ‘At History, [the nfb] has had a place of pride in our program schedule ever since the day we started, and that won’t change. We will continue to try to do as much business with them as is appropriate, whatever they have. We are happy to do business with the National Film Board.’

Michelle Fortin, src’s vp, French television, says she was deeply disappointed with the commission’s rendering, especially as regards the Reseau des Arts application. She says ‘the whole French government’ and an overwhelming ‘number of proposals from the regions across Canada’ had backed rda.

And while Fortin says she doesn’t feel the crtc decisions were shaped by the proximity of cbc/src licence renewal hearings, she says the new French-language specialty choices are ‘a copycat of existing English services, with the same partners.’

‘We certainly don’t have very much that’s strong or originating from here [Quebec] with a francophone point of view. And the Canadian channels are sometimes copycats of the Americans. Is this where we’re headed?

‘This is something that we wanted very much to do and now we won’t be able to, at least in the short term,’ says Fortin. ‘The first time we proposed rdi (Reseau de l’Information) it was refused. So we came back five years later.’

In general terms, rpc’s Roy says the crtc decision denying tva reflects its preoccupation with vertical integration and the role of cable. As for src being shut out, he says the public national broadcaster has made several strategic errors, among them commissioning inferior drama series and cutting back on news and current affairs coverage.

‘I don’t think Radio-Canada is reading the situation very well at the moment,’ says Roy. ‘In fact, they want to be treated like a public television network but act as if they are a private broadcaster. And ironically, ever since they’ve been doing this, it’s not served them particularly well.’

With the crtc’s May 21 decision, Fortin says src’s future as a specialty provider is compromised because of the growing number of channels now available, 15, and the limited potential for expansion in the French-language tv market. ‘We are probably close to the limit now,’ she says, ‘but we are going to keep on fighting.’